Up The Riverfront Without Parking

Complex Faces Shortage Of Spaces

FORT LAUDERDALE — When Las Olas Riverfront opens in coming weeks, the huge entertainment, dining and shopping complex will provide a blossoming downtown with the centerpiece it has lacked.

But the project at 300 SW First Ave. comes with a major drawback: No parking on site.

City codes didn't require Las Olas Riverfront to provide parking, despite the fact that the complex is expected to attract thousands of people on busy nights.

City and county officials decided several years ago that they would rely on existing parking several blocks from the entertainment center.

But now, with the first stores expected to open soon, the city fears a repeat of the traffic and parking problems that have plagued Beach Place, a smaller entertainment complex on State Road A1A.

Like Las Olas Riverfront, Beach Place didn't have to provide as many spaces as city parking rules require because officials figured customers could use nearby lots. But a year after Beach Place opened, officials say customers won't walk a few blocks from those lots; instead, cars regularly back up at the Beach Place garage.

``Certainly, we've learned from that experience, but I don't suspect there's any way of avoiding another Beach Place,'' said Doug Gottshall, the city's parking and central services manager.

Some officials worry the problem at Las Olas Riverfront will be even worse because it's bigger and, unlike Beach Place, there is no on-site parking. The result, they fear, could be a crush of traffic on Broward Boulevard, Second Street and Andrews Avenue, as drivers hold out for parking close to the entertainment complex.

Developers said they will hire police officers to direct traffic.

Las Olas Riverfront, originally scheduled to open last November, has been delayed because construction is taking longer. Some stores may be ready to open this month, but they are likely to wait until the movie theater opens in mid-May. The entire complex should be open by the end of June or early July.

The Mediterranean-style Las Olas Riverfront is in a booming four-block district of bars and restaurants one block west of Andrews Avenue on Riverwalk, the brick promenade along the New River. The small area on Southwest Second Street, known as Himmarshee Village, already struggles many weekend nights to provide enough parking.

The crunch is going to get worse, predicts a consultant working for the city and Las Olas Riverfront. A preliminary study indicates a parking shortage of as many as 3,700 spaces at night during the busy winter tourist season, Gottshall said. The low-end estimate is 800 to 900 spaces, he said.

Thousands of spaces now serve the western edge of downtown, and many are within two or three blocks of Las Olas Riverfront. But some are as far as six blocks away. That's too far to expect many customers to walk, planners and architects said. They said mall developers ideally prefer parking within about a five-minute walk of their destination.

``At this point, parking is pretty much meeting current demand, but that's about to drastically change,'' Gottshall said. ``We're going to be woefully short.''

Even though Las Olas Riverfront is expected to draw thousands more people to an area where parking is already scarce some nights, the developers aren't worried. They point to at least 4,000 available spaces in nearby garages and lots.

``I don't think parking at this center is going to be a problem,'' said Roger LeBlanc, an executive vice president of Michael Swerdlow Cos., one of the investors in the project. ``You look at any other entertainment center, and we have so much more accessible parking.''

LeBlanc said developers will offer valet parking for 200 cars, and they are working on a free trolley that would run between downtown garages. In addition, the 259,000-square-foot center has free nighttime use of the 1,550-space county garage across Southwest Second Street.

But there is some question whether those solutions will work.

Although backers think a downtown trolley would be successful if convenient and quick, an experiment last year with a free beach shuttle from parking several blocks away failed to attract many riders.

The county garage may not provide relief at critical times _ it's closed to the public during the day and is already open to Second Street patrons on Friday and Saturday nights. The three-story Las Olas Riverfront, formerly called Brickell Station, has not notified Broward officials when it plans to begin using the county's garage.